James 1:25
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Well, good evening. It's a joy and privilege for me to be able to open the Word of God to you this evening. I'm very grateful for the elders who give me this opportunity to preach God's Word to you this evening. If you don't mind, join me in another word of prayer before we begin. Father, we pray that you would open our eyes, that we would see wonderful things in James 1, verse 25. We ask this in Christ's name. Amen.
A common word that we hear, we as Christians say quite often is the word blessed. Blessed. I am blessed. And for me, when I write emails or write cards, sometimes I would end with the word blessings. Or we say, God bless you. We say it when people sneeze and I still don't understand why. Have you ever thought, what does it mean to be blessed? What exactly does the word blessed means?
What does the blessed life consist of? Do you want a blessed life? Well, I think we find the answer for that in James chapter 1. So if you have a Bible, turn with me to James chapter 1. We will look at verse 25, but for context, I will read verses 22 to 25. and it is on page 1011. I forgot how to say it. Yeah, 1011. I'll ask Kelsey later.
James chapter 1, beginning in verse 22. But be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror for he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like and here's our verse verse 25 but the one who looks into the perfect law the law of liberty and perseveres being no here who forgets but a doer who acts he will be blessed in his doing so what does the blessed life consist of i think it consists of hearing and doing the word now clearly there is an emphasis in doing the word in this passage but we don't want to over emphasize that and under emphasize the hearing so the blessed life consists of both hearing and doing the word it's not either or it's both
and hearing and doing the word and that will be the two points for my sermons this evening hearing the word and doing the word but before we jump into our first point let's explain let's think about what does the word blesses means what does that word means this is the same word that the lord jesus used in the sermon on the mouth in the beatitude and some translations render it happy and i think that word is not adequate so i'm not very happy with that happy translation i think the best idea that you can think about this word is the idea of how rewarding how rewarding so think about when jesus said bless us are those who are persecuted for righteousness for there is the kingdom for theirs is the kingdom of heaven well when when you are being persecuted that you're not happy but you will be rewarded by the lord and so the idea here is how rewarding in other words this way of life will be rewarded by the lord how rewarding and i think that is the
same meanings of that word in verse 25 that we see here the word blessed means how how rewarding so how can we get the blessed or rewarding way of life well first of all we need to hear the word hear the word so that would be our first point hearing the word and in this passage in verses 22 to 25 we see the key the idea of hearing being repeated three times if you look at verse 22 he talks about the hearers and then if you look at verse 23 he also talks about the hearers and then in verse 25 he mentioned the hear again so hearing is a key idea in this passage but what kind of hearing are we talking about what kind of hearing well it is a kind of the kind of hearing that involves looking so it's not going to involve not just the ear but also the eyes so look at the word look yeah look at the word look verse 25 but the one who looks into the perfect law this is a rare
word in the new testament it only occurs five times just five times in first peter chapter one It talks about the angels longing to look into the fulfillment of the gospel. And in the gospels, the four gospels, it talks about Peter, John, and Mary looking into the empty tomb on Resurrection Sunday. You think they should take a look at it quickly and go away? I don't think so. It is a careful look. And so other translations have rendered this.
Look intently. Look carefully. Look closely. In other words, what we have here is a penetrating look, a purposeful look. So the idea of hearing here really conveys, he's really talking about studying, studying the word. Now I know we live in a fast-paced society. Everything has to be instant, right? We got instant news, instant delivery, instant purchases, and the one that for most college students would be most familiar with is instant noodles, right?
We're all familiar with that. We want everything to be instant. And so one complaint that people often say is, well, I don't get much time from my devotional time. I don't get much time from the Word. And the one question you can ask is, well, how long did you look? How long did you gaze? How long did you reflect on it? How long did you study? Another complaint that sometimes Christians raise is, they say, well, it's too hard. It's too exhausting.
It's too demanding. Studying the Word is too hard. And of course, it can be hard. Now, to be sure, there are things in the Bible that are easier to understand. For example, the Gospel. Everyone can understand the Gospel, even a child. And so Augustine can say that the Bible is shallow enough for a child to play in. but it is deep enough to drown an elephant. And so there are things that are hard and easy in the Bibles, meaning not everything is going to be, the cookies are not going to be on the bottom shelves always.
You have to grow up and reach the cookies on the higher shelves. So the Bible is not only for sheep, it's also for giraffe, right? You have to grow up and reach that. We need to work hard, as Sinclair Ferguson said. He said, we must work hard at Bible study. And he said, the Bible does not reveal its riches to lazy mind and heart. So, brothers and sisters, take time to hear the Word, to study the Word, and to look at it intently, carefully, and closely.
In fact, look at all the designations or descriptions of God's Word here in verse 25. Look with me again in verse 25. But the one who looks into the perfect law, and then he said, the law of liberty. You see that description? The perfect law and the law of liberty. So when you combine them, what's the idea that you get? It is the perfect law that gives you freedom. It's the perfect law that sets you free. God's word is perfect.
And here I cannot help but being reminded of other statements about God's perfect word in the book of Psalms. For example, Psalm 19, the law of the Lord is perfect. Reviving the soul, the testimonies of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. Or Psalm 119, to all perfection. Think about that, to all perfection. I see a limit, I see an end point, but your commands are boundless. God's word is perfect. And to be honest, sometimes we don't study, we don't read the Bible.
I think because we forget its power. We forget what it can do. The Word can give us freedom. It can set us free from sins. And how rewarding is that? How rewarding is that? That every time we open the Bible and look intently, carefully at it, a light shines over the darkness of our situation. A rope is thrown down to rescue us from the pit of despair. And a sword is given so that we can cut all sinful chains.
The Bible is powerful. It can set us free. And so study the word. And I think one way that you can, for me, one way that I can make sure I get into the word more is I just have Bibles every place in my house. I have one in my bed stand, I have one in the living room, one in the kitchen, one in my desk, one near my couch. I used to put some in the bathroom, but I think Kelsey or someone cleaned it up, they didn't want it in the bathroom. But I just have it every place, and I try to have it open, so that every time I walk by, I would look at it, I would read it.
And so that can be one way that, it would be a good reminder too, that every time I see the Bible open, I said, I'm supposed to read it. the word. So the blessed life consists of not only hearing the words, that's part of it, but that's not all. It also requires doing the word or obeying the word. In other words, first we must apply ourselves to the word, but then we must apply the word to ourselves. We must apply ourselves to the word, but then we must apply the word to ourselves. And that leads us to our second point, doing the word.
Look again with me at verse 25. Let me read it one more time. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets, but the doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing. So clearly you can see the emphasis on doings here because different forms of the word do occurs four times in this passage. If you look at verse 22, You can see in the beginning, doers, he talked about the doers.
And then in verse 23, he also talked about the doer in the middle of the verse. And then in verse 25, it repeated two times near the end. You see that? Being no hearer who forgets, but a doer who asks. He will be blessed in what? In his doing. So this is an emphasis in this passage on doing the work. Not just hearing, it's important. But we need to do as well. We need to do the work.
Why? Well, because if we don't do it, we forget. Right? We forget. Our memories will fail us. Some research has shown that within a day, we will forget about 50% of the new information. And by the end of the week, up to 90% of it will be gone. So just by, let's see, by about the same time tomorrow, You forget what I say. You remember 50% of it. And by the same time next week, you have no idea what Max said this morning.
Right? If you don't do it, if you don't do it, so we need to do it to remember. We need to do it to remember. If we're here, we forget. But if we do, we will remember. We will be blessed. It will be rewarding. And doing is hard. Obeying the word is hard. Look at that, verse 25 again. Look at that word, persevere. See? You need to persevere.
You need to press on. You need to continue in it because it's hard. So why don't we do the word? I know it's hard, but what are some other reasons why we don't obey the word? Let me share with you two reasons. I think the first reason is because we don't meditate on it. We lack meditation. We don't meditate on how to apply the Word. Now obviously, if you don't think about how you're going to apply something, you're not going to apply it, or you're going to apply it wrongly. So for example, if you have 10 minutes to read the Bible each day, don't spend all 10 minutes to just read and study.
Spend 10 minutes, spend 6 minutes to read, and then 4 minutes to reflect on how you can apply what you read. So if you have 20 minutes, spend 15 minutes to study, and then spend that five minutes to reflect and meditate on how you can apply the Word to yourself. Or if you have 30 minutes, spend 20 minutes to study, and then 10 minutes to reflect on what you study. See how it can be applied to your life. And so in that way, you not only expand in your breath of Scripture, but you also go deep when you meditate, when you reflect on how it can be applied to your life.
So the first reason why we don't apply the word is because we don't meditate. But the second reason why we don't apply the word is we don't make it concrete. We leave it too abstract. Like if I just end the sentence right here. I said, we don't make things more concrete and we don't find tangible ways to apply the word. So for example, you can tell your teenagers to drive safe. Well, what does it mean to drive safe? Well, it means to follow the speed limit. It means to stop at red lights.
It means to use turn signals when you turn. People don't do it in Louisville. I don't know why. They don't want to tell me what they're about to be up to. So teenagers, if you get your driver's license, listen to this sermon. But my point is that we need to find concrete and tangible ways to apply the teachings. So, for example, if you read the Bible, you have your devotional time this morning and you say, well, you want to remember the truth that God cares for you.
Well, how are you going to remember that? Well, for me, one way that I try to remember the fact that God cares for me and my family is I feed the birds in the morning. And so when I get up in the morning, I feed the birds and then I try to remind myself that the Lord cares for the birds and the Lord cares for me also. And another way that I try to remind myself of God's care for me is I step out in the sun in the morning and I feel the warmth of it. And I say, thank you, Lord, for your love. Thank you for warming me and my heart.
So find tangible, concrete ways to apply the word and spend time thinking about how it can be applied to your life. So the blessed life requires hearing and doing the word. Now, if you are not a Christian this morning, this evening, rather, if you're not a Christian, the only thing that God wants you to do is to turn away from your sin and to turn to Jesus. God wants you to look intently at Him. He is the perfect Savior who can give you freedom, who can set you free from your sin.
So look unto Him, come to Jesus, and be saved. Let's pray. Father, we pray that you would help us to be not only hear us but do us of the word and we pray that those who do not know you would do the word would obey your commands to come to you to come to the Lord Jesus and be saved we pray this in Christ's name Amen